'Paying hackers a ransom is a race to the bottom', says HSE chief

On the issue of the vaccine rollout, HSE chief executive Paul Reid said the HSE estimates being on target for this week with 260,000-280,000 jabs administered, with a similar plan for next week. Photo: Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland

The HSE chief has defended the Government's decision not to pay a ransom to hackers who are threatening to release patient data online as the health system struggles from the impact of last week's cyberattack.

HSE chief executive Paul Reid said on Thursday that “paying a ransom is a race to the bottom”, and only serves to increase the “capacity and capability” of the criminal groups.

He said he is not aware of the financial amount being sought, and the matter is being dealt with by gardaí and other State bodies. He also said it is not possible at this moment to say whether documents online that are being claimed as HSE data are actually that.

Asked by the Irish Examiner if there is a limit to how far the HSE can continue working like this, he said: “Every day that moves on the risk increases. We will continue to mitigate the risks by the workarounds and what the teams are doing.”

Mr Reid said patients can expect systems to return at different times in each hospital. Some voluntary hospitals, he said, had thought that their systems were clear but have now discovered further issues.

HSE hospitals operate using the National Incident Management System (NIMS) which continues to be down. This has left staff using pen and paper to record results and treatments, he said.

The main focus is on restoring the Patient Administration System (PAS) containing patient records, but there is a back-up for this, he said.

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Chief operations officer Anne O’Connor said Emergency Departments, including those in Limerick University Hospital and Cork University Hospital, were extremely busy on Wednesday.

She called on people to only attend for emergencies, and to instead use medical assessment units or GPs for treatment.

On the issue of the vaccine rollout, Mr Reid said the HSE estimates being on target for this week with 260,000-280,000 jabs administered, with a similar plan for next week.

They are still unable to state the impact of the recent advice from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) on potentially offering people in their 40s a choice of vaccine.

Damien McCallion, HSE national lead for vaccinations, said the aim is to give everyone the vaccine most readily available.

Limited deliveries of the Johnson & Johnson Janssen vaccine will impact how that is used, he said. About 100,000 J&J doses are expected this month but 60,000 of those will be already used this week and next week.

The J&J vaccine is currently being used in mass vaccination centres for the over-50s and for vulnerable people, including homeless programmes now running around the country.

There are also limited doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine available as up to half a million doses must be used for second shots.

Mr McCallion said the rollout of vaccines to pregnant women has begun, but he conceded this has been uneven with some hospitals in Dublin offering vaccines for almost one month already while others in Connaught have not yet fully started.

Addressing the recent Covid-19 outbreaks in Cork, chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry said they have not received reports of unusual activity.

He said: “The message we are trying to give of course is for people, if their children are sick, not to go to school, especially coming up to the Leaving Certificate.” 

And he said that while cases were identified in schools and education settings in Cork recently, these “didn’t instigate in the school setting, they (the school) have not contributed to the outbreaks.”